


A Very Magical Kidnapping

by Deastar



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crack, Fluff, M/M, Silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-25
Updated: 2009-09-25
Packaged: 2017-10-06 16:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deastar/pseuds/Deastar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which the Quite Sparkly But Not-Very-Dread Wizard Adam kidnaps the Noble Prince Kris, who takes it sort of personally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Very Magical Kidnapping

**Author's Note:**

> I don't… even remember how this happened. Features Danny Gokey as a cardboard-cutout villain.
> 
> ETA 7/10/12: exmanhater made a BEAUTIFUL podfic of this story, which you can find [at the amplificathon](http://amplificathon.livejournal.com/1462562.html)! If you like podfics at all, you should check this one out, because it's awesome. Thank you, exmanhater!

“It’s really nothing personal,” the guy explains to Kris, looking kind of apologetic. “I have nothing against you. I’m sure you’re a lovely couple, you and Princess What’s-her-name.”

“You kidnapped me from my wedding!” Kris yells. “I’m sorry, I really can’t help taking that personally! And… and how did you even do that? One minute, I’m at the altar, and now I’m in… oh my god, is this your _bedroom_?”

The man looks shifty, glancing at Kris out of the corner of his eyes, which… _Is that eyeliner?_ Kris thinks. _Who is this guy? And why is he so… sparkly?_

“I may possibly have miscalculated slightly when I cast the spell that transported us here. We were supposed to end up in my workroom, but--”

“Wait a minute,” Kris interrupts. “The spell? You’re a wizard?”

“Uh, yeah,” the guy – well, apparently, the wizard – says, rolling his eyes. “Instantaneous transport kind of implies magic, unless you’ve got some special princely powers I should know about.”

Kris feels that insulting the man you’ve just kidnapped _from his wedding_ is really just going one step too far.

“Well, forgive me for not recognizing you, Your Wizardliness,” he says sarcastically. “You don’t exactly look like any of the other wizards I’ve met. They don’t usually have nails that shiny, or hair that… blue.”

Except then Kris feels bad, because the wizard stiffens and asks, “Is that a problem?” in this angry way that doesn’t do a very good job of hiding his defensiveness.

“No,” Kris says honestly. “It’s just different. I think you look… cool. I like the, um, gloves. They’re very… black.”

“Oh. Thanks.” The wizard holds his hand out for Kris to shake. “I’m Adam, by the way.”

“I’m Prince Kris, of Western Arkansas,” Kris says, then blushes, feeling stupid. “I guess you already knew that, huh.”

“Yeah,” Adam says, shrugging. “Kind of hard to kidnap someone whose name you don’t know.”

Kris is embarrassed to realize that, for a minute, he’d actually kind of forgotten about the whole kidnapping thing.

“Why did you kidnap me on my wedding day? Are you…” Kris gulps. “…An _evil_ wizard?” He’s heard of evil wizards running rampant in other kingdoms, but the wizards in Western Arkansas are not only not evil, they’re also pretty boring – too boring to be evil even if they tried, Kris figures. He doesn’t know Adam very well, but Kris thinks that nobody wearing that much glitter could ever be boring.

“I’m not evil!” Adam looks offended. “Just… broke,” he admits, looking sheepish. “I’m on contract for the King of Missouri. Looking this fabulous isn’t cheap!” he insists, defensively.

“I can’t believe you kidnapped me for money!” Kris exclaims. Adam raises an eyebrow.

“You liked it better when you thought I had abducted you for my own nefarious purposes?”

Kris glares.

“When you marry Princess Katy, your marriage unites Eastern and Western Arkansas into one kingdom. I guess His Majesty thought that would make Arkansas too big a threat,” Adam explains. “Either way, it’s no skin off my nose. I kidnap you, keep you here until the treaty falls apart, then plop you back in your lovely home, I get my paycheck, I go on an awesome shopping spree and move out of this kind of sketchy tower, and everybody’s happy. Sounds good to me.”

“Tower?” Kris says, looking around at the slightly shabby bedroom he’s standing in, with its saggy ceiling and weirdly-angled corners. “This is your wizard’s tower? I thought wizard’s towers were supposed to be… magnificent, and imposing, and spacious, and um… architecturally sound,” Kris finishes, looking askance at the way the door behind Adam isn’t even really close to level on top.

Adam scowls. “Do I come into your kingdom and make snide remarks about how I think the crops are a little moldy, and the tax system isn’t geographically equitable? No. But that’s because _I_ have manners. I don’t walk into other people’s homes and bitch about them.”

“I didn’t walk in! You kidnapped me!” Kris thinks it’s a little troubling how they keep losing sight of that fact. Adam waves a hand dismissively.

“Details. Anyway, as you _so kindly_ pointed out, the tower’s not very impressive, or big, so you’re staying in here with me until the King of Missouri says you’re kosher to go. I have a bathroom, and a kitchen and dining room, and a workroom, but this is the only place to sleep, really, so… home sweet home, I guess.”

Kris stares at him.

“I’m staying in _your bed_?”

Adam looks around his own room like he’s seeing it for the first time, then jumps and flushes a little.

“Oh. Uh, no. Sorry. Forgot about the whole… one bed thing. Hang on.”

He opens his mouth, and notes begin pouring out – as Kris watches, the single bed starts to grow and stretch, until finally there’s a popping sound, and it separates into two very respectable beds, complete with their own pillows and blankets.

Kris gives Adam an admiring look. “That was cool. You didn’t even… have a spell or anything, you just sang and… it happened.”

Adam shrugs. “That’s how it’s always been for me. I guess I’m lucky that way.”

“That’s… really impressive,” Kris insists. “I’ve never seen a wizard do that. It’s supposed to be really hard, isn’t it? I mean, you must be super talented.”

Adam just shrugs again. “It hasn’t done me much good. Like I said, broke.” It’s obvious he doesn’t want to talk about it, so Kris leaves it alone – it’s probably a little weird to be such a nice guy that you end up trying to respect your kidnapper’s emotional issues, but Kris is used to being weird that way.

Being a prisoner of the Wizard Adam turns out not to be as bad as Kris thought it would be. He was pretty ticked off to find that Adam hadn’t thought to get Kris any, y’know, _clothes_, or toothbrushes, or books to read, or soap – but the incident teaches Kris something very valuable: Adam totally can’t resist Kris’ sad-puppy eyes. Adam ends up jumping back into the castle three times, until Kris is satisfied that he has all the stuff that he’ll need to keep himself occupied during his captivity.

Kris felt a little weird, asking Adam to grab his guitar on the last trip – even though Adam is a total mercenary jerk who kidnapped him from his own wedding, it’s still embarrassingly like waving a crayon drawing in front of the Court Painter and saying, “See, I’m an artist, too!” Fortunately, Adam doesn’t say anything, and it’s not that strange anyway, for a normal person to have a musical instrument. Lots of people have musical hobbies. It doesn’t have to mean anything.

So being a prisoner isn’t so bad, but it is definitely boring. Sometimes he and Adam talk, which is surprisingly nice and interesting, but Adam spends most of the day holed up in his workroom, which Kris isn’t allowed into, and the tower is as small as Kris had predicted – only four rooms, which doesn’t allow for a lot of changes in scenery. It makes Kris curious – here’s Adam, this amazingly talented wizard, who should have an amazingly gorgeous tower, with a zillion rooms full of nooks and crannies, and exotic delicacies to eat, and a mob of servants, and silk sheets, and wonders around every corner; instead, Adam lives in this ramshackle tower with a roommate who he had to kidnap for money, and has to do his own laundry and dishes, and comes to bed tired every night, with his throat raw from singing his spells all day.

“Do you, um… want me to do the laundry or something?” Kris finally offers. Adam might be a sketchy kidnapping wizard, but it goes against Kris’ nature to watch somebody else suffer when there’s something he can do.

Adam raises an eyebrow. “You know there’s no laundry room, right?”

Kris thinks. “Oh. Then how--”

“I do the chores with magic,” Adam admits. “It’s faster and takes less space. So thanks for the offer, but there’s not much you can do. And also, why are you offering to do my chores? You remember that I’m totally keeping you prisoner here, right?”

Kris squirms, and says, “I just… you seem really tired all the time, and I felt bad for you, okay?”

“Oh my god, how are you even real?” Adam asks, staring at Kris like _he’s_ the weird one in this room. Kris blushes.

“Some people are just nice,” he mutters. “I can’t help it.”

Adam stares for a couple more minutes, then says, “Come with me.” Adam leads Kris through the kitchen, and through the badly-sanded door into his workroom, which Kris has never seen before. _This is more like it_, Kris thinks. It’s a beautiful room, every wall crammed with shelves, every shelf crammed with books, paper, musical instruments, bottles and jars. There’s even a piano.

“Do you play? The piano, I mean?” Kris asks, which is probably a dumb question, but Adam just says absently, “Not really. I keep trying to teach myself, and then getting distracted.”

“I could, um… teach you,” Kris offers, hesitantly. That gets Adam’s attention. He whirls around to look at Kris again.

“Seriously,” he says, staring intently into Kris’ eyes. “I mean seriously. Where do you come from?”

Kris wants to say “Arkansas,” but he’s pretty sure that Adam knows that, so he decides not to say anything. Adam’s clearly looking for something. When he finds it, he holds it up triumphantly. “Aha!” he exclaims, holding the object out to Kris – it’s a beautiful pewter bowl, with all kinds of shapes of plants and animals twining around the rim. Adam pours water into the bowl until it’s half-full, then sets it on the worktable.

“I thought you might want to see how things are going at home,” he suggests. “It’s not an easy spell, but…” Adam looks away and mumbles, “I’m not a total jerk. Not usually, anyway.”

“I’d really like that,” Kris says quietly. He knows his family must be worried – Princess Katy, too. They’ve known each other practically forever – it was a political marriage, sure, but he’d actually been looking forward to the day when she would be his wife. She’s beautiful and smart and strong, and Kris knows how lucky he is. Or… how lucky he _was_, anyway. He doesn’t know if they’ll still be able to be married after all of this kidnapping stuff is resolved.

Adam starts to sing his spell, peering closely at the spellbook. When he reaches out to scoop something into his hand from a glass jar, Kris can’t help blurting out, “Is that really _glitter_?” even though he knows he’s not supposed to interrupt a spell in progress. Adam almost loses the thread of the spell by laughing, and he glares at Kris, who shrugs apologetically.

When Adam finishes the spell, an image starts to form in the water; Adam motions for Kris to come over and look.

“There’ll be sound in a second,” he says. “It should start kicking in any second.”

“Thank you,” Kris says softly.

Kris looks down into the bowl and sees Katy, sitting on her throne, looking worried – he feels a clench of guilt.

“I just want to know that Prince Kris is all right,” she insists, talking to someone out of view.

“I regret to inform Your Highness that I cannot guarantee that. In fact, I have to tell you that… we have reason to believe that your fiancée is in grave, grave danger,” a voice replies – the view in the bowl expands to reveal a man that Kris doesn’t recognize, but when Adam sees the guy, he flinches, and whispers, “Bastard!”

“Who is that guy?” Kris asks, as his parents step up to join Katy, looking just as worried as she does.

“The Wizard Danny,” Adam says grimly. “I don’t know why he’s there, but I don’t like it.”

The Wizard Danny, apparently, continues to talk to Katy, wearing a sad expression that seems kind of fake. “As you requested, Princess, the Council of Wizards used our arcane powers to find the Prince, and I’m afraid the news is bad. He has been abducted by the Dread Wizard Adam,” he says, in that way that makes it clear that he’s using a capital “d” on “Dread.”

Kris turns to look at Adam. Adam is kind of strange, for a wizard, Kris has to admit that. But he does his own laundry (even if it is with magic), and he went back to fetch Kris’ guitar, and he works really hard, and he’s doing this nice thing for Kris, and the poor guy obviously has serious money troubles, and also seems kind of oblivious to basic architectural principles. He doesn’t seem “Dread” to Kris.

“Are you seriously ‘Dread?’” Kris whispers, meaning to make a joke out of it; but Adam just looks suddenly old, and stares down into the bowl of water.

Katy looks kind of suspicious. “I’ve never heard of this Dread Wizard Adam. Where did he come from, and why do you think he kidnapped Prince Kris – supposedly,” she adds, giving Danny kind of a dubious look.

The Wizard Danny puts on his fake sad face again – Kris thinks that Katy’s not any more fooled by it than he is. “The Council of Wizards had no choice but to accept Adam into our ranks, because his talent is formidable, but no wizard was willing to take him on as an apprentice, and so his magic is crude, and he lives in obscurity, and resents the Council and plots revenge against us. Of course, we wish that he would see the error of his ways and rejoin us, but this kidnapping just demonstrates how far he’s fallen. To abduct a noble prince just to gratify his own perverse desires--” Danny stops suddenly, and holds a hand up to his mouth. “Oh no! I’ve said too much!” he exclaims, and it’s so fake that Kris wants to throw up.

Katy doesn’t seem to like it much, either. She narrows her eyes at the Wizard Danny. “I don’t like you, wizard,” she says. “I think you have a lying tongue.” Danny sputters; Katy ignores it and goes on. “I know my rights. I’m calling a Wizard Convocation. There are rules about how you guys can treat us non-magical folks, and I’m going to see that they’re followed. And I’m going to do it without _your _help,” she concludes, turning away from the wizard.

Kris smiles as the image in the bowl fades out, and says, “That’s my girl,” with a kind of quiet pride.

He turns to look at Adam, to have a laugh about that skeezebucket Danny, and how Katy put him in his place, but the laugh dies when he sees how Adam is looking at the floor, arms crossed defensively. It just doesn’t make any sense – it looks like he’s expecting Kris to _hit_ him or something, which would be crazy after Adam just did this nice thing, showing him his home and family.

“Are you okay?” Kris asks.

Adam doesn’t say anything for a minute, then looks up at Kris and back down at the floor quickly. “You can have the bedroom. Sorry. I’ll… move one of the beds in here.”

“_Where_?” Kris blurts out, because he honestly can’t imagine how Adam thinks he’s going to fit a cot in between all these cluttered tables, let alone an actual bed, considering that a person can hardly walk a straight line from one end of this room to another without bumping into a table or a cabinet. “Wait, is this about what that creepy Danny wizard said? Because even I could tell he’s a liar.”

“He was telling the truth,” Adam says quietly, still not looking at Kris.

That makes no sense whatsoever, and Kris looks askance at Adam, who’s behaving really strangely all of a sudden.

“Um, if your secret, ‘perverse’ desire is to have somebody in your tower playing guitar badly at all hours of the day or night and insulting your architecture, then… yeah, I guess he was, although then I feel kind of sad for you, ‘cause that’s a pretty lame secret desire. But otherwise, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

_That_ gets Adam to look at him. “You play guitar beautifully,” he protests. “Also, that’s not what I meant. I mean… Danny’s right. I’m gay.” He doesn’t hesitate when he says it, and he holds his head up proudly, but hold himself like he expects to have to take a punch. Kris just doesn’t get it. This whole conversation, it’s like Adam is talking a whole different language, to some other person, in… some other time zone or something, Kris doesn’t know.

“Um, I kind of figured,” Kris says, still confused. “I mean, I hate to stereotype, but the hair was kind of… no offense. It’s very cool. You know I like your hair. I’m pretty sure we’ve talked about it. Like, several times. Which was kind of another giveaway. The ‘talking about hair’ thing. Sorry.”

Adam stares at Kris for a minute. Then another minute. Then another.

“Seriously,” he says finally, “where did they find you?” He breaks into a grin, a real one, and adds, “And I know you wanted to say ‘Arkansas’ last time, but that’s totally not allowed. I’m speaking more metaphorically.”

“You can read my mind?” Kris asks, eyes wide, staring at Adam.

Adam laughs. “Oh, so _that_ freaks you out. Good to know. But, no, I can’t read your mind. Sorry. You’re just really transparent. Everything you think is right there on your face.”

Kris blushes and mumbles, “Whatever.”

That night, as they’re getting ready for bed, Adam asks, “This is really all okay with you?”

Kris gives him a look. “You kidnapped me. You are holding me here against my will. I keep feeling like that fact isn’t getting the attention it deserves.”

Adam rolls his eyes.

“You’re fixating obsessively on that one tiny little thing. That’s got to be unhealthy. Anyway, you know that’s not what I meant.”

Kris slips under the covers and looks up at the ceiling. “I really don’t care about that stuff. It shouldn’t matter. It doesn’t matter to me. I like you the way you are. If you liked girls or didn’t wear leather or didn’t sparkle, you wouldn’t be the Wizard Adam.”

“And that would be bad?” Adam sounds amused.

“Well, on the plus side, I wouldn’t have been kidnapped from my own wedding—”

“You’ve really got to learn to let that go.”

“—but otherwise… yeah,” Kris says softly. “That would be bad. I think if we’d met some other way… we’d be friends. Don’t you think?”

Adam turns out the light and falls into his own bed.

“Maybe. Yeah.”

Kris lies awake for a while. He can tell from Adam’s breathing that Adam’s not asleep either.

“That’s why the tower’s so sketchy,” Adam whispers, out of the blue. “Most wizards, when they build their towers, they have the whole Council helping them, and they take shifts, and work for days, and pour all of their power into it. But the Council doesn’t like me. They say I’m bad for their image. They don’t want people to think that, if their kids grow up to be wizards, they’ll be like me. So none of them would take me as an apprentice, and I’m forbidden to have any apprentices of my own. And I had to build the tower by myself. So that’s why.”

“That sucks,” Kris whispers back. “Thanks for showing me my family.”

“I should have been doing that from the beginning. I can do it every day, from now on, if you want.”

“That would be great,” Kris replies, then drifts off to sleep.

In the morning, Adam asks awkwardly if there’s anything else he can do for Kris, to make his stay more pleasant. Kris thinks that sounds like a hotel brochure and says so, but finally admits, “It really would make me feel better if I could do some chores.”

Adam laughs and throws his hands up.

“Fine! Fine, you weirdo. You can hash it out with Allison.”

“Who’s Allison?”

Allison, it turns out, is a fire spirit.

“She’s my familiar,” Adam explains, as if it’s no big deal, but Kris knows that most wizards just have animals for their familiars – Adam must have a ton of magic, to be able to sustain a fire spirit on his own.

“Is this Prince Kris?!” she exclaims, when Adam sings her out of the fireplace in his workroom. “I’ve heard so much about you! You’re just as cute as Adam said you were!”

“Oh my god, Allison, shut up,” Adam mutters, but Kris just laughs, and says, “Thanks. It’s good to finally meet you, too.”

Adam shoos them out into the kitchen to talk alone. When he closes the door to his workroom behind him, Allison turns to Kris with a soft look in her eyes. “I’m glad you’re here. He’s been pretty lonely. He leaves the tower when he can, and I try to keep him company, but… it’s still good for him to have someone around who he can really talk to.”

“As happy as I am to cheer up the great Wizard Adam,” Kris says, “I think there’s probably a better way for him to find friends than to run around kidnapping princes on their wedding days.”

“That was very rude,” Allison agrees, nodding solemnly, but there’s a twinkle in her eyes.

Allison very politely but firmly refuses to let Kris do any of the chores, because most of them have to be done magically anyway, and the others would take Kris ten times as long as they take her, and she just won’t stand for that. Kris gracefully accepts defeat.

“Is there anything I _can _do? I get kind of bored, and Adam seems kind of stressed,” says Kris.

“You could help him cast,” Allison says, which knocks Kris for a loop.

“I-I’m not a wizard,” he stammers, which stupidly still hurts a little to say, even after all these years.

“I know that, silly,” Allison explains, rolling her eyes. “But somebody’s playing the guitar out here while Adam’s working, and unless there’s another spirit around, I’m betting that’s you. If you play for Adam while he sings, you can offer up some of your own strength, by blending your talents together. If you want to help, that’s how I’d do it.”

“That would be great,” Kris says honestly. Princes are allowed to have hobbies, and music isn’t too weird, as far as that goes, but it’s always bothered Kris a little to know that he’ll never actually get to perform, that the only thing his talent is good for is wasting his own time. The idea that he might have a purpose for it, that he might really get to help somebody, is pretty awesome.

So he goes and gets his guitar from the bedroom, and knocks hesitantly on the workroom door. A couple seconds later, it opens and Adam leans casually out of the door.

“What’s up?”

“Allison said if I wanted to help, I could… play along with you,” Kris says, holding up his guitar. “She, um… wouldn’t let me do any of the chores.”

Adam laughs. “I told you so. But if you wouldn’t mind,” Adam says, opening the door wider and motioning for Kris to come in, “I really would appreciate your help. I’ve heard you play – you’re amazing.”

“It’s just a hobby,” Kris mutters, blushing.

“You’re too modest,” Adam remarks, giving Kris a dubious look. “It’s unnatural.”

“I guess I’m just special,” Kris says with a smile, and Adam rolls his eyes.

“I’m strengthening the tower’s magical defenses today,” he says. “It’s hard and boring work, and I’m really bad at it, so… sorry? But I could really use the help.”

“It’s no problem, really,” Kris assures him.

“Don’t try to think about the magic,” Adam tells him. “All that’ll do is stress you out. Just back me up – I’ll start singing the spell, and you can join in with your guitar when you feel like you have a handle on it.”

Kris nods. This is just about the coolest thing he could imagine, honestly – the next best thing to being a wizard himself. He’s a little nervous, but when Adam’s voice starts to sing, clear and strong, it only takes Kris a couple of seconds to feel the shape of the song that Adam is singing, and to join in with his guitar. Adam looks a little surprised at how quickly Kris joined him, but they’re in perfect sync, and Kris can see when Adam’s focus leaves his body, and his voice pulses with magic.

It’s strange, actually. Kris can see really clearly what Adam is doing – well, not _see_, per se, and not _hear_ either. It’s… some other sense, something Kris can’t really describe, and Kris thinks that it’s not actually normal for him to be aware of the power that Adam is directing toward the tower’s walls, to feel the web of spellwork strengthening, growing brighter or louder, or something. Kris can see how Adam is struggling – his power doesn’t flow smoothly, it wants to come out in flashes and bangs and bursts, wants to explode or sparkle… which makes perfect sense to Kris. It’s _Adam_. But it’s hard for Kris to watch Adam struggling with it, trying to build something slowly and methodically, when his talent so clearly isn’t meant for that, isn’t suited for it, and it would just be so _easy_…

And before Kris can think about it or stop himself, his mouth opens and the notes come out, just the right notes to form a bridge between Adam and the tower’s defenses, to take Adam’s explosive, unpredictable power and channel it into the system, turn it into something dependable and long-lasting. It’s beautiful. It’s _right_, and easy.

The spell’s work is done, and Adam shuts it down, closing his mouth and turning to stare at Kris, who blushes furiously and looks at the floor.

_Moron_, he thinks, utterly embarrassed._ Now he won’t want you to play for him anymore, and you’ll be stuck plunking out chords in the bedroom again._

“That was…” Adam begins, and Kris cringes.

“…amazing!” Adam concludes, and when Kris looks up at him, he’s beaming. “You have so much talent; that spell usually takes me all day! I didn’t know you trained to be a wizard!”

“I-I didn’t,” Kris stammers. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know where that came from. It won’t happen again.”

Adam frowns. “You didn’t train to be a wizard?”

“No,” Kris admits. It’s hard for him to go on – he’s never told anyone this – but Adam deserves an explanation. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be a wizard so bad – more than anything. I loved music, loved to sing, I was good at it – but I was stupid. When I was sixteen, my parents sat me down and reminded me that… I’m a prince. I have responsibilities, people depending on me. And being a wizard isn’t part of that. So I stopped singing. I grew up,” Kris finishes softly.

“That’s stupid,” Adam announces, and Kris gives him an annoyed look.

“I’m pretty sure I already said that,” he says, but Adam shakes his head and explains, “No, that’s not what I mean. I mean it’s stupid you gave up! You have a ton of talent – I could tell, with the defensive spell, that you knew exactly what needed doing and how to do it. That’s the kind of instinct that can’t be taught. You’re really good – as good as me, maybe, when you get the right training.”

“Even if I thought you were right – and I think you’re crazy, by the way – that doesn’t change anything,” Kris says firmly. “I still have responsibilities. I always will. I have a fiancée, and a kingdom.”

Adam rolls his eyes. “Whatever. I still think you’re being stupid, but whatever.”

“I’ll… I’ll go,” Kris says quickly, picking up his guitar, but Adam exclaims “No! I mean…” He coughs. “I’d really like it if you’d stay and play with me.” His eyes widen, and he gives Kris a panicked look. “For me, _for_ me,” he starts babbling, but Kris just laughs and says, “I know what you meant.” He sits back down on the stool and settles his guitar on his knee.

“So what are you working on now?” he asks.

Adam hauls out a big, heavy tray of charcoal briquettes out from under the piano, and sets it on the table with a groan. “I thought I might sing some power into these, for Allison – you know she eats magic, right? And I _can _just force-feed her pure power, but these things are like candy for fire spirits, and I just…” He flushes, looking defensive. “I know the Council says that spirits aren’t people, really, and don’t have feelings or opinions, but it just seems mean to me—”

“Hey,” Kris says, holding his hands up and speaking in what he hopes is a soothing tone of voice, “no problem. I’m sure she’ll be excited. I’ll join in as soon as I can.”

“Thanks,” Adam says. “And… feel free to help me out a little more directly, if you want. I’d… like that.”

“Yeah, okay,” Kris says, humoring him, because there’s no way he’s going to humiliate himself in front of Adam like that again… or so he thinks; when Adam starts to sing, and Kris picks up the harmony on his guitar, he can just feel the affection Adam has for Allison coming through his voice, weaving in with the magic, and Kris’ own affection – for Allison and for Adam – rises to the surface of his mind, and he just can’t help it, he has to join in, has to braid those strands of feeling together until they’re three times as strong.

When the spell is over, Kris feels a little tired, like it took more out of him than just singing and playing would have. He tries to stand up from the stool, and almost falls – fortunately, Adam is quick enough to catch both Kris and his guitar.

“Yeah, it can hit you that way, if you’re not used to it,” he says, guiding Kris out of the workroom and into the dining area with a hand under his elbow. He putters around the kitchenette, and a couple of minutes later, sets a mug of tea down on the table in front of Kris.

“Thanks,” Kris says, sipping the tea gratefully.

“No problem. You know, this won’t happen if you get properly trained,” Adam says, arching an eyebrow. Kris rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, it also won’t happen if I stop trying to sing along.”

Adam gives him an unreadable look. “Did you mean to sing along this time?”

“No,” Kris admits, looking away. “I just…”

“Couldn’t help it,” Adam finishes, and Kris nods. “You said you stopped singing when you were sixteen?” Kris nods again. “That makes seven years of magic building in your voice and your heart, desperate to get out and _do_ something, _make_ something. You’re not going to be able to keep it to yourself, if you’re in the presence of magic,” Adam says, looking a little sad. “It’s just not an option. The magic wants to get out.”

“So… it’s you,” Kris says, meeting Adam’s eyes. “Being around you. If I just went back home, I wouldn’t be tempted, and the magic would just box itself away again, forever.”

“Is that really what you want?” Adam asks. His eyes are bright, bright blue, piercing and unforgiving.

“Of course it is,” Kris stammers, but the truth is that he’s not sure anymore – and he’s pretty sure Adam knows that. Kris misses Katy, misses his parents, misses his home and its familiar places… but if he went back now, he’d miss Adam, and this misshapen little tower, and the way Adam’s freckles show through his makeup at the end of a long day when he wipes a tired hand across his face.

“Uh-huh,” Adam murmurs, noncommittal. “Well, too bad, because I’m still getting paid pretty well to keep you here, so that’s that. You might as well take advantage of it while you can.”

Kris is pretty sure that that’s a dangerous way to start thinking about things, but the next day, he reports to Adam’s workroom, guitar in hand, and sits on the bench at the big center table with Adam, going over the beginner’s spells he barely remembers from his teenage years. Adam is really patient with him, seems to enjoy watching him rediscover the simple magics he used to know how to do. In return, Kris insists on teaching Adam to play the piano that’s been gathering dust in the workroom.

One day, a chime sounds in the middle of one of their piano lessons, and Adam swears.

“Hang on,” he mutters, “messenger from the Council coming through. We have to let him through the defenses.”

Kris joins him in singing a spell of safe passage, and a few seconds later, a man suddenly appears in Adam’s workroom.

“Wizard Adam.”

“Ryan,” Adam replies, nodding. He turns to Kris and explains, “Ryan is an air spirit.”

“Princess Katy of Eastern Arkansas has called a Wizards’ Convocation. The Council summons you to attend at sundown, and to bring Prince Kris with you. You may prepare with any defensive magics you feel necessary.”

“Good to know,” Adam says, blank-faced, giving nothing away, and Ryan vanishes as quickly as he came.

“Shit,” Adam says softly, when he’s gone.

“Is that… this is bad news?” Kris asks, and Adam laughs shortly.

“For me, yeah. The Council and I have gotten along really well for the past several years by each pretending that the other doesn’t exist. Having me there, in all of their faces, is just going to remind them how much they can’t stand me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Adam shrugs. “I’m operating under a totally legit contract, so they probably just want to make sure that I’m not abusing you or anything, while you’re here.” More softly, he says, “I hate to say this, but… full disclosure, if you want to go back to your family, that’s probably the fastest way to do it. Tell them I’m doing experiments on you, or… tried to seduce you – that one, they’ll definitely believe – and they’ll probably let you go back to Arkansas.”

“And what happens to you, then?” Kris asks, a little angry that Adam would even think that Kris would do such a thing.

“They’ll punish me,” Adam says casually, as if it doesn’t matter.

“That’s totally not going to happen,” Kris says firmly. “I’m not going to lie, especially if it would get you in trouble.”

“I’m glad.” Adam smiles. “Well, we’ve got to be there by sundown – there’s a lot to do, and not a lot of time.”

Of course, two of the five hours before sundown are spent on Adam picking out the perfect outfit and putting together all the right jewelry and makeup. Kris, who was set in five minutes with his plaid shirt and jeans, rolls his eyes but keeps his mouth shut as Adam explains the importance of each item of clothing and how it contributes to “the overall fashion gestalt,” which is a combination of words Kris never thought he’d hear in his lifetime. The other three are spent on last-minute protective magic. Apologizing the whole time, Adam uses one of his eyeliner pencils to draw a sigil on the skin of Kris’ back, where his shirt covers it up, then sings it into the skin, where it leaves a warm, sort of tingling feeling.

“It keeps you from going more than ten feet away from me. Sorry. Precaution. I really hope it won’t be necessary.”

Just as the sun is about to sink below the horizon, Adam wraps an arm around Kris’ waist, says, “Close your eyes,” and starts to sing.

 

~*~

 

When Adam’s voice quiets, Kris opens his eyes. He and Adam are on some kind of raised platform, surrounded on one side by rows and rows of chairs – he can see Katy and his parents sitting close to the front – and the Wizard Danny, not far away. Front and center, there are four people – two men and two women – sitting in one long row, staring up at Adam in a way that makes Kris feel defensive.

“Those are the judges,” Adam murmurs in Kris’ ear. “They sometimes make some crappy decisions, but they’re mostly fair. This could be a lot worse.”

Ryan, the air spirit messenger from earlier in the day, comes forward and says a lot of ritual stuff, talking to the judges and Adam – Adam produces the contract, and the judges look it over and nod.

It all passes by in kind of a blur until suddenly, one of the judges turns to Kris and says, “Well, Your Highness, this is the moment of truth. Do you have any complaints, any at all, about your treatment at the Wizard Adam’s hands?”

“Um… he kidnapped me,” Kris points out, and the judges laugh.

“Besides that,” the younger female judge says, smiling. “As crazy as this may sound, he does have a legal contract for that.”

“No,” Kris answers honestly. “Adam is great. We’re really different, but we get along.”

“And he’s never made any inappropriate--” one of the male judges starts to push, and Kris cuts him off rudely.

“No,” he says clearly, staring the guy down. “Adam wouldn’t do that. Adam is a good guy. And if you knew him even a little, you wouldn’t even have to ask. I think it’s stupid that you feel like you can say that stuff just because Adam’s different from you. You can’t. It’s wrong.”

He turns away from the judges and catches sight of Katy’s face – she’s smiling at him, and she looks proud. He smiles back – it’s hard to be angry when he sees her face. She stands up and addresses the judges.

“That’s all I needed to hear. Obviously, I want to have my fiancée back home as soon as possible, but as long as he’s being well-treated, I can respect the Wizard Adam’s right to fulfill his contract.” She turns to give the Wizard Danny a dirty look. “Also, please let me suggest that you maybe do something about the wizards who’ve been spreading all kinds of cruel, false rumors in my kingdom – it’s really starting to get on my nerves.”

Kris grins – the Wizard Danny does not look amused. He stands up, looks down his nose at Katy, and says, “I am in possession of some facts that the Council should know! Isn’t it true, Prince Kris, that when you were younger, you wanted to be a wizard?”

Kris feels like he’s been punched, but he tries not to show it.

“That was a long time ago,” he says, and knows it’s as good as a yes.

“And isn’t it true, honorable judges, that you can feel a magic signature coming from Prince Kris?”

“That’s just a spell to keep us from being separated,” Adam tries to explain, but the Wizard Danny barrels right over him.

“I have evidence to suggest that the Wizard Adam has been teaching Prince Kris some small magics, playing on his childhood dreams in return for who knows what sordid repayment, and simultaneously breaking the Council’s ban forbidding him from taking on apprentices!” Danny announces, and Kris feels sick to his stomach, because that’s not how it is at all, but now even Katy looks doubtful.

“You’re full of crap,” Kris says, and Adam reaches out to touch his arm, muttering, “Kris, no--”

Kris is in no mood to keep quiet. He yanks up the back of his shirt to show them the sigil. “This is where the magic is coming from, okay? Just a spell to keep us from being separated, like Adam said,” he explains, angry that he even has to. “And there’s no ‘sordid repayment,’ okay? Adam has never asked me to do anything for him – he won’t even let me do the chores!” Kris adds in an aggrieved tone, and Adam looks like he can’t decide whether to laugh or cry.

“He could ask,” Kris says more softly. “He’s done a lot of nice things for me, and I’m really grateful, and I like him, and we’re friends, and he’s obviously, you know--” Kris waves a hand at Adam that encompasses Adam’s bright blue eyes, and his infectious smile, and his strong hands and his strangely magnetic experimental hair. “—so, you know, he _could_,” Kris admits, blushing a little. “But he wouldn’t. He’d never.”

There’s an outburst of muttering from the spectators, and the judges turn to confer with one another. Adam gives him a smile that’s equal parts pleased and rueful.

“As much as I appreciate the sentiment,” he murmurs, bending to speak directly into Kris’ ear, “showing them the spell I sang into your naked skin, and then telling them that you think I might very well be entitled to sexual favors from you, was probably not the best way to clear my name.”

Kris winces, feeling guilty, but Adam’s still smiling, so it must not be too bad.

“Your Highness,” the younger female judge says, “we take your point as far as your personal relationship with the Wizard Adam. But is it true that he has been teaching you magic?”

Kris hates to lie, and he’s bad at it and it just seems wrong, but he doesn’t want to get Adam in trouble.

“Not really _teaching_,” he hedges, “just reminding me of stuff I already knew, mostly--”

“Yes, I’ve been teaching him,” Adam says bluntly, cutting Kris off. “I didn’t think it was an issue, since he’s a prince, and so he can’t formally be my apprentice. He’s got a lot of talent – I didn’t want it running wild.”

“That’s not your judgment to make,” the male judge with the British accent says, sneering. Kris thinks, _Douchebag._

“It’s my fault,” Kris says, which is not strictly true, but which is definitely better than letting Adam get in trouble for doing him a favor. “I just kept doing magic in front of him without meaning to. I could have hurt someone, I guess,” Kris adds, which may be laying it on a little thick, but the judges seem to like that.

They mutter and confer, and Kris takes a moment to look for Katy. When he sees her, he smiles, but she’s giving him kind of a weird look.

“Prince Kris, Wizard Adam,” the non-douchebag male judge says, “Our verdict is this: Wizard Adam may escape punishment for now. _But_… Prince Kris, we will be placing a tracking charm on you, and if we ever detect you performing magic again, under Wizard Adam’s supervision or not, you will both be blacklisted by the Council, banned from Council lands, forbidden the use of Council property, and no longer protected by Council justice. So be it.”

“No, wait!” Adam protests, “That’s not fair!” But everybody in the audience is leaving, and no one is paying attention.

“It’s okay,” Kris says, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I shouldn’t have started doing magic again in the first place. I don’t want you to worry – I won’t put you in danger by trying magic again.”

“You think I’m worried about _me_?” Adam whispers, incredulous. “Kris, your magic is a part of who you are, you can’t smother it, lock it away--”

Adam is interrupted by the arrival of Katy and a pair of unfamiliar-looking knights.

“Kris, can I speak to you alone for a minute?” Katy asks, and Kris agrees. After she’s pulled him a few feet away from Adam, who is chatting with the knights, she looks him straight in the eye and says, “On the one hand, I’m relieved to hear that the Wizard Adam isn’t importuning you for sexual favors.” She shrugs. “On the other hand, I’m kind of disappointed that the Wizard Adam isn’t importuning you for sexual favors.”

Kris’ eyes pop out, and he opens and closes his mouth without saying anything, like a fish.

Katy rolls her eyes. “Well, you want him to, don’t you?” Kris makes an inarticulate vowel sound, and Katy gently pats him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, it’s not actually obvious – just obvious to me. I’ve known you a long time, Kris,” she says, with a smile that’s a little sad.

“Mlargh,” Kris says, which is not really an improvement.

“I’ve been spending a lot of time in negotiations with the King of Missouri, trying to get you back,” she tells him, raising an eyebrow. “Should I not have bothered?”

Kris is torn, but in the end, he knows what his answer has to be. “I have responsibilities,” he says heavily, “to you, to my people, to the kingdom. No matter how much I… I have responsibilities,” he concludes.

“Hmm,” says Katy, with the far-away look in her eyes that means she’s planning something. “Let me… you go back with your wizard. I think… well, I’ll let you know.” With that vague pronouncement, she wraps her arms around him in a tight hug.

“I love you,” she tells him, “and I want you to be happy. I’m proud of you.”

“I love you, too,” Kris whispers, and remembers how lucky he is to have a girl like her on his side.

Kris and Adam return to the tower after Wizard Kara and the Council place the tracking spell on Kris. Things aren’t really the same. Kris tries, and he can tell Adam’s trying, too, but it’s awkward to go back to the times when their friendship stopped at the workroom door. Adam doesn’t even show him pictures of home anymore, because they’re both afraid that Kris won’t be able to stop himself from singing along. Worse, Kris can’t see Allison anymore – she and Adam are both afraid that being around a spirit like her would leave a trace of magic on Kris. Useless once again, Kris mopes around the tower.

(Once, in a fit of desperate boredom, he washes the dishes himself, by hand. It doesn’t make him feel any better.)

The stupid thing is, Kris spent seven years of his life voluntarily not doing magic, and while he’d missed it at first, and thought about it occasionally, for the most part, he hadn’t given it any thought for those seven long years; but now that he _can’t_ do magic, it’s all he can think about. The muffled sound of Adam’s clear voice through the workroom door drives Kris into the bedroom to pull the covers over his head. His guitar is packed away and buried under a messy pile of Adam’s many leather pants. Every time Kris’ clothes magically appear on top of his dresser overnight, full of the rich citrus smell that Allison’s fire magic leaves behind, it takes Kris an hour to dig himself out of his totally unhelpful mud-wallow of self-pity.

Kris still likes being around Adam, still wants things from Adam that he hardly knows how to explain – still blushes when Adam blithely strips in the bedroom on his way to a shower – but if he can’t be helpful, if he can’t be part of the most important thing in Adam’s life…

“Oh my god, are you brooding?” Adam says, bending over to peer into Kris’ face.

“…maybe,” says Kris, slightly shamefaced.

“Well, stop it, it’s disturbing,” says Adam, making a face. “It’s like watching a kitten cry, or watching a daisy… beat up another daisy, I don’t know. It’s just wrong.”

“I miss magic,” Kris blurts out, stupidly.

“I know,” Adam says gently. He folds Kris into a warm hug – Adam gives great hugs – and rests his chin on top of Kris’ head. “I’m going to fix this for you. This is my fault, and I’m going to make it right.”

Kris detaches to frown up at Adam.

“It’s not your fault, Adam.”

“Whatever you say, Pocket Prince,” Adam says, dismissing him with a wave of his hand. “Hey, I’m giving Allison a vacation for a few days, so we’ll have to cook and clean and do the dishes ourselves – try to restrain your disappointment,” Adam concludes dryly as Kris cheers.

Adam has some big magic thing he’s working on, so Kris ends up doing most of the chores, but he absolutely could not mind less. He finally feels useful again, drying stacks of plates and sweeping the floor, and Kris thinks maybe things will go back to the way they used to be, now that he actually has something to do (although, there being no laundry room, Kris is really hoping Allison comes back before he runs out of underwear).

A few nights later, after Kris and Adam are cleaning up after a dinner that Kris proudly cooked, Kris notices that Adam is a little… off, somehow. He’s moving like his joints hurt, and there’s something sad lurking around the corners of his eyes.

Kris nudges him gently in the ribs.

“Your sparkle seems a little de-sparkled. Do you want to talk about it?”

“Nah, that’s okay.” Adam dredges up a smile. “And by the way… ‘my sparkle is de-sparkled?’ What the hell is that?”

Kris refuses to blush. “Your sparkle is an integral part of the whole Wizard Adam… experience,” he insists, waving a hand at Adam vaguely, and Adam cracks up, laughing so hard he actually has to lean on the counter for support. Tears are coming out of his eyes and he’s practically wheezing as Kris punches him in the shoulder.

“Shut up, it wasn’t _that_ funny!”

“Oh, this is too good,” Adam says, grinning, his voice still shaking. “Tell me more about the ‘Wizard Adam experience.’”

Kris wants to scowl, but he’s just glad that Adam’s smiling again. Adam’s leaning gracefully against the counter, still breathing hard – his face is flushed, and his chest is heaving slightly, and Kris is suddenly a little afraid he’ll say the wrong thing, so all he says is, “It’s… it’s a nice experience.”

The smile Adam gives him in return is small and gentle. “Thanks,” he says. “You’re… thanks. I—“ Adam’s smile twists slightly, and he looks away. “I’ll miss you. When you go back.”

Kris is about to say, “You, too,” but Adam turns into a whirling dervish of efficiency, finishing up the dishes in no time and hustling Kris into bed.

“What about you?” Kris asks – he likes the slow, quiet conversations they have at night, trading words between their separate beds as they drift off.

“I’ll be in in a little bit. There’s something I have to do, first.”

“Okay,” Kris says, yawning.

He’s woken up the next morning by a hand shaking his shoulder roughly – it’s barely light out, and Kris opens his eyes blearily to see Adam standing over the bed, still shaking him urgently.

“Come on, get up, we have to go before sunrise is over!” Adam says, practically dragging Kris out of bed.

“Are you kidnapping me again?” Kris asks fuzzily, and Adam groans and asks, “Will you ever let that go?” before opening his mouth and singing a hurried string of runs that transports the two of them to a grassy place Kris has never seen before.

“What--” Kris starts to ask, but Adam sings himself away again before Kris can finish the question. In Adam’s absence, Kris looks around – he’s in a forest, surrounded by… stuff. Adam’s stuff, by the look of it – Kris can see the silvery scrying bowl, and even the grand piano from the workroom.

Adam reappears, holding a giant bundle that appears to be all of Kris’ stuff, which he sets down gently on the grass next to the piano.

“I’m about to do some incredibly complicated magic, so I really, really need you not to interrupt me,” he says to Kris, eyes intense. “And obviously, you can’t help me. I’m sorry. Everything will be better soon,” he finishes, cryptically, before facing away from Kris and starting to sing. His eyes drift closed, and his hands rise toward the sliver of sun that’s starting to appear on the horizon. His voice, as always, is stunning, and Kris is just so glad to be back in the presence of Adam’s magic that it takes him a few minutes to notice one more important thing about where they are: the great big flipping _stone tower_ just ten yards or so away.

It’s got to be Adam’s tower, Kris thinks, because as wizard’s towers go, it’s pretty tiny, and none of the stones match, and honestly, Kris has no idea how the darn thing stays standing, because it doesn’t have any of the buttresses it’s supposed to have, and doesn’t seem to have a sunk foundation at all, which makes Kris feel a little queasy about the structure he’s apparently been living in for the past several months.

Distracted by the tower, Kris doesn’t notice when Adam pulls the knife from his boot without pausing in his spell, but he definitely notices when he draws the knife across his left palm – Adam’s voice catches, and Kris has to focus really hard on Adam’s command not to interfere, because he doesn’t like the turn this is taking at all. When the first drop of blood hits the ground, the tower starts to chime, to harmonize with Adam’s voice. Adam claps his hands together, and the tower echoes the sound with a boom of its own, and suddenly, the whole structure starts to… disintegrate, for lack of a better word.

In a careful, controlled manner, the whole tower starts to slowly implode on itself, crumbling inward, stone by stone, until at last, there’s a pile of rubble where the tower used to stand, and Adam suddenly sags to the ground, barely holding himself up on his knees.

Kris rushes to help him, but Adam holds up a hand, looking desperately toward the horizon, where the last of the sun is about to emerge.

“I have to do it now,” he says urgently, “before the sun is up. Give me your hand!”

Kris does, and Adam closes his eyes and starts to sing again, steadily but with increasing feeling. When Kris looks down at where their hands are joined, he can see a tracery of lines, like words and symbols, starting to appear on his hand, and spreading slowly up his arm, then traveling across his collarbone and down his other arm, and, Kris guesses, his chest. He awkwardly tries to remove his shirt one-handed, and sure enough, the intricate lines trace down his chest, stopping just below his heart. In a way, they’re beautiful, but they’re a little creepy, too – Kris doesn’t like them.

Adam eyes fly open, and he, too, looks at the patterns on Kris’ skin. His spell falters only for a moment, as he says to Kris, “I’m so sorry about this. Please forgive me,” then takes up the spell again. With the first two fingers of his left hand, Adam draws an invisible line down Kris’ right arm, following the path of his radius – where his fingers touch, it’s like an eraser or a washcloth: the black filigree disappears. With the same two fingers, Adam strokes down Kris’ neck, and along his shoulder, continuing on down the outside of Kris’s left arm, all the way down to his thumb, and everywhere Adam’s fingers travel, they wipe away the intricate designs.

Kris gasps as Adam’s fingers circle his palm, skate along the inside of his elbow, brush softly under his eyes. Gently, gradually, Adam’s hand washes Kris clean of the tracery of lines, inch by inch, as Kris looks on wide-eyed and breathing fast. Finally, as far as Kris can tell without a mirror, all of his skin is back to normal, except for his lips, and the spot directly over his heart. Adam steps close, close enough that Kris can hear his quick, gasped breaths, and draws his thumb slowly over Kris’s lips, which can’t help but part. Finally, Adam uncurls his fingers, and places his left palm, still bleeding a little, directly over Kris’ heart, as the sun breaks away from the horizon.

Adam stops singing. Kris takes a deep breath, and then another, and Adam quickly steps away.

“What _was _that?” Kris asks. “And… your tower!”

“That – I took the Wizard Council’s tracking spell off of you,” Adam replies, with a shadow of a smile. “You can do as much magic as you want now, whenever you want.”

“You--” Kris doesn’t know how to respond to that. “Aren’t they going to notice?”

Adam shrugs. “Eventually, they will – I did the removal the hard but clean way, so breaking the spell itself won’t have sent up any alarms. But in a few months or a few years, they’ll remember to check up on you, and they’ll notice it’s gone.”

“And when they do,” Kris asks, “what then? What’ll happen to you?”

“They’ll exile me, excommunicate me, whatever they feel like – maybe worse.” Adam rolls his eyes. “Let ‘em try. I know they’re all scared of me anyway. After the power I showed today, they’ll be fucking terrified.”

And that’s another thing – “Where did you get enough power to break a spell sung by the entire Council of Wizards, Adam?” Kris asks, almost sure he doesn’t want to know the answer.

“The tower,” Adam replies, and the look he shoots the pile of rubble where the tower used to stand is wistful. “I just… stripped the power from the stones. All the power I put into building it, into maintaining it, and defending it, and even the power in the stones themselves, I just… took back into myself. So that I’d have enough to fuel the spell.”

“Allison hasn’t been on vacation, has she?” Kris asks, pretty darn mad by now. “You couldn’t spare the power to feed her, so you released her as your familiar. She’s gone.”

Adam flinches. “Hopefully I can find her again in a couple months, when I have my strength back. She… she understood. She’s the one who told me to do it.”

“And where are you going to live now? Did you think of that?” Kris throws up his hands.

“I’ll figure something out,” Adam says, determined.

“You can… use the money from your contract with the King of Missouri,” Kris says, thinking fast, but Adam interrupts him.

“I… can’t do that, actually. Because I’m breaking the contract.”

“What?!”

Adam looks at him fondly, with a hint of sadness, and says, “You’re free to go, Kris. If I had the power, I’d take you back to Arkansas right now. I’m… you should be free to live your life.” His shoulders sag. “I was a hypocrite, to be so mad at the Council for stopping you from doing what you really wanted to, when I was doing the same thing. So…” He gives Kris a really good imitation of a smile. “Go and… do princely things. Marry the princess, rule the kingdom. All that fun stuff.”

“No,” Kris says.

Adam looks thrown. “No?”

“No.”

“What do you mean, _no_?” Adam asks, looking suspicious and a little bit mad.

“I mean, no, I’m not going to go. I’m not going to marry Katy. I’m going to stay with you.”

Adam runs his hands through his hair. “Kris… you don’t owe me anything. I know right now, it looks like I’ve done this big thing for you, and I remember all that stuff you said at the Convocation, about how you thought I could… but—that’s not--” He takes a deep breath and sighs. “I did it for myself. Because I want you to be happy. It was totally selfish on my part, I assure you.”

“Because you love me,” Kris says, suddenly wonderfully sure, and Adam’s jaw falls open.

“That’s not—I didn’t--” he flails, but Kris just walks up to him and rests a hand softly on his cheek and says, “It’s okay. I love you, too.”

“Really?” Adam asks. “I mean… what? Wait--”

Kris cheerfully interrupts him. “I don’t have a tower to dismantle, to prove how I feel about you, or a familiar to say goodbye to, or spell to break. Totally subtle, by the way,” he comments, enjoying himself while Adam goggles. “But I do love you. I have for a long time. So I’m not going to leave you.”

“Kris, you don’t need to--” Adam starts, looking like he’s gearing up for an argument, and Kris just sighs.

“Okay. Maybe I do need the grand romantic gesture. Hang on.” Kris digs his guitar out of the pile of his belongings, focuses on a spot just about halfway between the grand piano and the ruins of the tower. Opening his mouth, he starts to sing. He sings how much he misses Allison, and misses the rickety little tower, sings all the things he would miss about Adam if he went away – his freckles and his surprisingly smooth laugh, his rich, clear voice and his broad, graceful hands, his unbending courage and his warm heart – he sings his own strength of purpose, sing his own refusal to let go now that he’s finally found what he really wants, and when he’s done, there’s a very serviceable little one-story cottage sitting where there used to be just grass.

When Kris turns to look at Adam, Adam is staring back, speechless.

“It’s, um… kind of plain, I know,” Kris says. “I’m not good at, you know, sparkle. That’s not really my thing. But, um, that’s not the point, because it’s not a house. Well, it _is_ a house, but it’s sort of more a point, and the point is this: Arkansas isn’t my home. This--” Kris gestures to the little cabin. “—this is my home. Because this is where you are.”

Still silent, Adam walks up to the cabin and opens the door, stepping inside. Kris follows him into the small entryway that leads into the rest of the house.

Adam looks down at Kris. Kris looks back at Adam.

“You are absolutely out of your mind, you know that?” Adam says, breaking into a wide grin and pulling Kris into a very lengthy and passionate kiss. Just as Kris is threading his hand into Adam’s soft black hair, the door of the cottage bursts inward with a bang, and three figures come charging in.

The person in front is Katy, and Kris blushes as she gets a good look at Kris and Adam’s arms still tangled around each other.

“Hi,” she says, clearly having a pretty hard time trying not to laugh. “We’re here to, um… rescue you. I’m getting the impression that might not be necessary, though.” She sighs. “Ah, well. It was mostly a formality anyway.”

“Katy,” Kris says, taking a step toward her, because he had this idea just a few minutes earlier and he’s got to get it out before someone tries to stop him, to take him back to the life he’s decided he doesn’t want, “Katy, I’m abdicating my throne. When my parents resign the rule of Western Arkansas, and the throne passes to me, I’m passing it on to you. You’re a great ruler, and you’ll make a great queen – I know I can trust you with anything.”

Adam makes an inarticulate noise of protest, but Katy considers this for a minute, then breaks into a relieved smile.

“Oh, Kris, that just makes things so much simpler. I assume you’re not marrying me, then?”

“That’s right,” Kris says, trying to be gentle. “I’m sorr--”

“Great!” Katy beams. “Then all our problems are solved. I was going to rescue you because David – that’s the King of Missouri – was being super ornery and wouldn’t release the Wizard Adam’s contract, but now that I’m free to marry _him_ instead – King David, obviously, not Adam… no offense, Adam – you won’t be a threat to his kingdom anymore, and the Wizard Adam can release you without reneging on his contract.”

“Wait, you’re marrying the King of Missouri?” Kris asks, feeling like he’s been left a little bit in the dust by the past thirty seconds.

Katy nods. “I told you I’d been spending nearly every day in negotiations with him for your release, and, well…” She shrugs, looking a little dreamy. “We just got to talking. Granted, mostly we were talking about _you_, but… this is what’s right, for me _and_ for the kingdom.”

“I’m glad,” Kris says sincerely. “You deserve to have somebody special.”

“Thanks, Kris,” she says, and hugs him. When she lets him go, she gives him a speculative look.

“You know, since you deprived me of a fiancée, I feel like you owe me.”

“Anything,” Kris promises.

“How about a Court Wizard?” she says, eyes sparkling.

“I’m not licensed by the Council,” Kris says, just as Adam says, “The Council hates my guts—” and Katy waves her hands to cut them off, looking totally unconcerned.

“One of the things King David and I talked about is how hidebound and stupid the Council has become – we decided to start our own Council of Wizards, which would be open to everyone, and which wouldn’t punish people for being different. We don’t really have the time or patience to run it ourselves, though,” Katy says to Adam. “Want the job?”

Adam looks just as confused and overwhelmed as Kris does. “Uh… what?!”

“Wonderful!” Katy says, smiling as wide as ever. “Well, I’m going back to Arkansas to set this all up. I’ll expect my Court Wizard and my Wizard Councilor to get there pretty soon, but I understand you’re having a sort of a honeymoon type of thing, so just… come when you can!” And she and her two knights march right out of the cottage, having rearranged Kris’ whole life in the space of about five minutes.

“We don’t have to do any of that, you know,” Kris says quietly. “If you want to just stay here, and keep doing the contract work you’ve been doing – I meant it, when I said that home, for me, is wherever you are.”

“Oh, shut up, Pocket Prince,” Adam laughs. “You know this is awesome beyond my wildest dreams, right? And by the way, your ex-fiancée is totally terrifying and awesome.”

“I was a lucky guy,” Kris agrees. He leans close and kisses Adam gently. “I’m luckier now.”

Suddenly, there’s a knock on the cottage door. When Kris opens it, one of Katy’s knights is standing in the doorway, looking amused.

“We found this fire spirit moping around the woods about a half-mile from here – she says she belongs with you guys.”

“Allison!” Adam exclaims, pulling the red-haired girl in through the door and into an enthusiastic hug.

“You’re smooshing me!” Allison cries, as Kris quietly thanks the knight and closes the door again.

“So many fabulous things have happened in your absence,” Adam explains. “Kris is going to be Court Wizard, and I’m going to be some kind of grand pooh-bah in a new Wizards’ Council, and--”

Allison rolls her eyes. “Oh, _whatever_! The important question is: did you guys confess your eternal love and stare deeply into each other’s eyes before sharing a soul-shattering kiss?”

“Oh, _wow_,” says Kris.

“Yes!” says Adam.

“Yay!” says Allison.

“And we’re going to be doing a lot more of that, and many other exciting, probably naked things, starting right now, so it’s time for all good little fire spirits to give the humans some alone time,” Adam says firmly as Allison pouts. She kisses each of them on the cheek before vanishing in a puff of sparks.

Adam pushes Kris gently against the wall and kisses him deeply. Kris can feel Adam’s smile against his skin as Adam murmurs, “Kidnapping you is the best thing I ever did.”

“So you admit you kidnapped me!” Kris crows, triumphant, and Adam pulls back to give him a dry look.

“Still can’t let that go, huh?”

“I don’t understand why you couldn’t just ask me out, like a _sane_ person,” Kris mutters into the curve of Adam’s jaw.

“Well, I didn’t know I wanted to, back then, did I?” Adam says, being entirely too reasonable for Kris’ taste. Kris scowls up at him in reply.

“Too cute for words,” Adam says, laughing, which makes Kris blush. Adam soothes him with a kiss. “Tell you what, baby. If it’ll make you feel better, you can kidnap me right back.”

So Kris did.

And they lived happily ever after.

THE END

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic of] A Very Magical Kidnapping](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5708650) by [exmanhater](https://archiveofourown.org/users/exmanhater/pseuds/exmanhater)




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